No. 5 seed Elena Rybakina powered into her third career Grand Slam final, and first in three years, with a 6-3, 7-6(7) defeat of No. 6 seed Jessica Pegula at the Australian Open after saving two set points in the second-set tiebreak.
Australian Open: Scores | Draws | Order of play
Rybakina had to hold off a valiant late-stage comeback attempt by Pegula, who who was bidding to become the first woman in the Open Era to reach her first two major finals after turning 30 years old. The 2024 US Open runner-up saved three match points serving down 5-3 in the second set, then broke Rybakina twice as the Kazakhstani served for the match at 5-4 and 6-5. However, Rybakina edged a knife-edge tiebreak with clutch tennis, winning the last two points of the match with her sixth ace of the day, then her sixth return winner of the day.
It will be 2022 Wimbledon champion Rybakina’s second Australian Open final, and she will face the same player she met in her first. In 2023, Aryna Sabalenka got the upper hand 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 to claim her first of four major crowns so far. The World No. 1 still leads their head-to-head 8-6, including 5-4 on outdoor hard courts. However, Rybakina leads the series 3-1 in finals, including a 6-3, 7-6(0) win in their most recent meeting in the 2025 WTA Finals Riyadh title match.
Rybakina and Sabalenka are the fourth pair of players to meet in multiple Australian Open finals this century, following Jennifer Capriati and Martina Hingis (2001, 2002), Serena Williams and Venus Williams (2003, 2017) and Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova (2007, 2015). There is only one other pair of active players that has met in multiple Grand Slam finals — Sabalenka and Coco Gauff (US Open 2023, Roland Garros 2025).
Neither Rybakina nor Sabalenka have dropped a set this fortnight. They are the first pair of Grand Slam finalists to have reached the title match without either losing a set since Serena Williams and Venus Williams at Wimbledon 2008, and the first at the Australian Open since Justine Henin and Kim Clijsters in 2004. They are the 23rd pair of Grand Slam finalists in the Open Era who have got to the title match without either losing a set.
Rybakina has now won 19 of her past 20 matches since falling to Sabalenka in last October’s Wuhan quarterfinals. Following that tournament, the 26-year-old won Ningbo, reached the Tokyo semifinals (giving Belinda Bencic a walkover), won the WTA Finals Riyadh and reached the Brisbane quarterfinals to tie her career-best winning streak at 13 in a row. That was snapped by Karolina Muchova, but Rybakina has swiftly regained her momentum in Melbourne. Since Wuhan, she has also won nine straight matches against Top 10 opponents.
Rybakina improved to 4-3 overall against Pegula in their first meeting on the Grand Slam stage.
More to come…
